In the US, safety cards must have a statement of where the final assembly for the airplane occurred.

Thinking through the manufacturers only Airbus currently manufactures the same model airplane in multiple countries. (Yes, there were a few MD-80s and MD-90s in US airline fleets that were assembled in China, but they're not in production anymore.)

The only Airbus products US airlines currently fly the A320 Family, A330, and A350. It appears only the A320 family of airplane is produced in multiple countries, specifically Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Tianjin, China; and Mobile, Alabama, United States. From my understanding all of the deliveries from the Airbus's Chinese plant are delivered to Chinese airlines. All the planes from the US plant are delivered to US airlines. The plants France and Germany both deliver airplanes to US airlines as well as airlines in other countries.

Are airlines making the effort to ensure that the safety card's properly reflects the airplane's country of final assembly? How much of an operational pain is it?

I know Delta had specific color stripes on the front of the MD-90 safety cards: one for the US assembled aircraft, and one for the Chinese assembled aircraft. Do they do something similar for the A320 family?

Thinking through the manufacturers only Airbus currently manufactures the same model airplane in multiple countries. (Yes, there were a few MD-80s and MD-90s in US airline fleets that were assembled in China, but they're not in production anymore.)

The ERJ-145 was built both in Brazil and in China from 2003 to 2016. They still build the business jet variant in China.

USAirKid wrote:

From my understanding all of the deliveries from the Airbus's Chinese plant are delivered to Chinese airlines.

I think they delivered a few to other Asian airlines, but I may be wrong.

USAirKid wrote:

How much of an operational pain is it?

At my airline, each aircraft has a large package of safety cards lying in one of the overhead lockers. Restocking a plane with new safety cards should be a relatively easy task if they do it like that. It's not like they have to deliver one card here and 3 cards there across the entire fleet.

How is it that B6 can just keep one edition of the A321 safety card that says built in the USA or Germany on it and have it work for both planes? DL has to have the German and the American built A321 safety card editions separate

How is it that B6 can just keep one edition of the A321 safety card that says built in the USA or Germany on it and have it work for both planes? DL has to have the German and the American built A321 safety card editions separate

How is it that B6 can just keep one edition of the A321 safety card that says built in the USA or Germany on it and have it work for both planes? DL has to have the German and the American built A321 safety card editions separate

This comes up every now and again. It's not uncommon to have the aircraft cleaners make mistakes (cards are re-stocked during cabin cleaning). The cleaners throughout the system know to look out for this and do a pretty good job of catching and correcting mistakes.

AFAIK, it was introduced by a Washington state legislator.. One of those small things that they did to "support" Boeing.

So, another case of protectionism causing a lot of extra effort and added cost for the general public... Surely, this must be an FAA rule that applies only in the US, right? Even though I almost always read the safety card, despite knowing most of the ones I come across by heart, I've never seen anything about the country of final assembly in Europe.

AFAIK, it was introduced by a Washington state legislator.. One of those small things that they did to "support" Boeing.

So, another case of protectionism causing a lot of extra effort and added cost for the general public... Surely, this must be an FAA rule that applies only in the US, right? Even though I almost always read the safety card, despite knowing most of the ones I come across by heart, I've never seen anything about the country of final assembly in Europe.

/Fredrik

As I understand it started around the same time as "Freedom Fries". So make of that what you will.

As far as UA goes, I would think all of their A319s were made in Hamburg, and all the A320s were built in Toulouse. The Mobile plant only opened last year, and the China plant opened in 2008. UA is taking delivery of some used China Southern A319s, but I am pretty sure all of the frames they are taking were manufactured around 2006/2007.